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Cheney’s Iraq deceptions leave NPR
speechless
Jan. 23 — Vice President Dick Cheney rarely submits to
one-on-one interviews, so the chance to question him directly presents
a valuable opportunity for journalists. Unfortunately, National Public
Radio’s Juan Williams failed to challenge Cheney’s questionable
claims about Iraq on the Jan. 22 broadcast of NPR’s Morning Edition.
In response to a question about the administration possibly backing
away from its pre-war claims about Iraq’s weapons, for example,
Cheney reiterated the long-discredited claim that military trailers
found in Iraq were Saddam Hussein’s so-called mobile bio-weapons
labs: “We know, for example, that prior to our going in that he
had spent time and effort acquiring mobile biological weapons labs,
and we’re quite confident he did, in fact, have such a program.
We’ve found a couple of semi trailers at this point which we believe
were, in fact, part of that program. Now it’s not clear at this
stage whether or not he used any of that to produce or whether he was
simply getting ready for the next war. That, in my mind, is a serious
danger in the hands of a man like Saddam Hussein, and I would deem that
conclusive evidence, if you will, that he did, in fact, have programs
for weapons of mass destruction.”
In fact, the trailers are anything but “conclusive evidence”
of an active unconventional weapons program. The London Observer newspaper
(6/15/03) reported that “an official British investigation into
two trailers found in northern Iraq has concluded they are not mobile
germ warfare labs, as was claimed by Tony Blair and President George
Bush, but were for the production of hydrogen to fill artillery balloons,
as the Iraqis have continued to insist.” A British biological weapons
expert who examined the trailers told the Observer, “They are not
mobile germ warfare laboratories. You could not use them for making
biological weapons. They do not even look like them. They are exactly
what the Iraqis said they were — facilities for the production
of hydrogen gas to fill balloons.”
The hydrogen-producing system, intended to fill balloons that help correct
for the effects of wind on artillery, was originally sold to Iraq by
the British firm Marconi Command & Control, the paper reported.
The New York Times, in an article headlined “Agency Disputes CIA
View on Trailers as Weapons Labs” (6/26/03), reported that a US
State Department memo also cast doubt on the CIA’s initial conclusion
that the trailers were intended for manufacturing biological weapons.
Even the head of the US’s post-war search for banned weapons, David
Kay, has backed away from his initial endorsement of the mobile bio-lab
claims. In comments to reporters on October 2, 2003, Kay said: “The
mobile lab program, as you’ll see when you look at the unclassified
summary of the statement, is still something that’s very much being
examined.... We simply are continuing our investigation. We’re
not yet at a point where we can say what they were for.”
Given that Kay works for the CIA, his statement that “we”
are continuing to investigate suggests that the CIA’s earlier assessment
cannot be taken as definitive. The evaporating claims about the trailers
have been a prominent part of the controversy over the Bush administration’s
failure to produce the banned weapons that it insisted were in Iraq.
Yet Juan Williams was not prepared to question Cheney when he cited
the trailers as “conclusive evidence” of an Iraqi biological
weapons program.
Following up on Cheney’s NPR appearance, the Washington Post (1/23/04)
and Los Angeles Times (1/23/04) both raised questions about the accuracy
of his comments. It’s unfortunate that Williams was unable to present
similar information, failing to give listeners a chance to assess Cheney’s
responses. (Later on January 22, NPR’s Talk of the Nation —
a show with far fewer listeners than Morning Edition — did allow
a producer for PBS’s Frontline to question Cheney’s trailer
claims.)
By failing to challenge Cheney’s dubious claims, Williams may have
been practicing the kind of journalism that he thought NPR expected.
After NPR host Terry Gross interviewed Fox News Channel’s Bill
O’Reilly on the Fresh Air program (10/9/03), she was reprimanded
in NPR ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin’s online column (10/15/03): “I
agree with the listeners who complained about the tone of the interview:
Her questions were pointed from the beginning.” Perhaps Williams
took from that the lesson that asking “pointed” questions
is something NPR’s journalists should avoid.
Source: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Conflict at CNBC’s new Dennis Miller
show
Jan. 22 — Dennis Miller’s new CNBC political talk
show is already mixed up in a serious conflict of interest. The conflict
— brought to our attention by weblogger Roger Ailes (no relation
apparently to the Fox News chief) — began with the show’s
hiring of Mike Murphy as a consulting producer.
The problem isn’t that Murphy is a well-known Republican campaign
consultant whose past clients have included Republican Sen. John McCain,
Florida Governor Jeb Bush and the 1992 Bush/Quayle campaign; the problem
is that Mike Murphy already has a job.
Murphy, who was a key political advisor in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s
2003 campaign for governor of California, still works for Schwarzenegger.
Currently Murphy is a leader of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s California
Recovery Team and Californians for Schwarzenegger, two groups created
by the governor to maintain his political image, raise money, and promote
his policies (AP, 1/2/04).
Indeed, Murphy has become so identified with Schwarzenegger that a Jan.
21 Los Angeles Times article referred to him as “Schwarzenegger’s
chief strategist.” The website of Murphy’s political consulting
firm, DC Navigators, lists the California Recovery Team (which has been
in operation for less than a month) as a client. CNBC has dismissed
the idea that Murphy’s political work poses a conflict for the
show. In an article in Television Week (1/12/04) that described his
ongoing work with Schwarzenegger as Murphy’s “most recent
gig,” reporter Michele Greppi noted that NBC is grappling with
the conflict-of-interest questions posed by Schwarzenegger’s wife,
Maria Shriver, working for the news program Dateline. But, Greppi reported,
“At CNBC no such questions are being considered, because Mr. Miller
has made clear that his show, however political, will not be partisan.”
But having a producer for a political talkshow working as a political
operative is a clear conflict of interest. As if to demonstrate what’s
wrong with this arrangement, the first edition of the Dennis Miller
show aired Jan. 26 (1/26/04), scheduled to include, along with John
McCain and former Republican New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, California’s
new Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
According to Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz (1/19/04), “The
bagging of the California governor and Arizona senator is the handiwork
of former Schwarzenegger and McCain strategist Mike Murphy, who now
has a place in the Hollywood hills and is Miller’s consulting producer.”
Kurtz was apparently unaware that Murphy still works for the California
governor.
While one has to be impressed by the professional zeal of a political
consultant who gets himself hired by a talkshow in order to book his
boss on that show, it’s clear that if you’re in the business
of news rather than political PR, the situation is completely unethical.
CNBC needs to address the fact that Mike Murphy has at least one job
too many.
Source: Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
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